ECB vows to curb inflation, no room for complacency - expended

bbj.hu

Monday, September 15, 2008, 14:18

The European Central Bank will deliver on its mandate to maintain price stability, which is a prerequisite for financial stability, through permanent and credible alertness, ECB President Jean-Claude Trichet said. The ECB pumped €30 billion ($43 billion) into the euro zone money market.

“Europe can count on the (ECB) ... to implement in this century the historic task which was assigned to us at the end of last century,” Trichet said in a speech on Monday. “We will be faithful to the primary mandate given to us by the (EU) treaty.” “We also know that price stability is a prerequisite for financial stability, a very important objective at the current juncture,” he said. “As I said, at the current juncture there is no place for complacency but for permanent, credible alertness,” he said.

Financial markets were shaken to the core on Monday after investment bank Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy protection as the latest casualty of the global credit squeeze triggered by the sub-prime mortgage market crisis in the United States. Bank of America agreed to buy Merrill Lynch in an all-stock deal worth $50 billion, seeking a bargain as the world’s largest retail brokerage sought refuge from fears it could be the next victim.

The US Federal Reserve said for the first time it would accept stocks in exchange for cash loans and 10 of the world’s top banks agreed to establish a $70 billion emergency fund, with any one of them able to tap up to a third of that. Trichet would not directly comment on the Lehman developments. “We are facing many challenges with our colleagues in other continents, across the channel, across the Atlantic and across the Pacific,” he said in the speech. (Reuters)

The European Central Bank pumped €30 billion ($43 billion) into the euro zone money market in a one-day refinancing operation Monday in response to the crisis in the US banking sector- reports newswire dpa. The ECB said the quick tender had drawn bids from 51 banks for a total of €90.27 billion and that the allocation of the €30 billion had taken place at an average rate of 4.39%. The ECB’s minimum rate for refinancing operations is currently 4.25%. (m&c.com)

Turnover via electronic payment methods continued to rise strongly in 2017, according to data released on Monday by the National Bank of Hungary (MNB). The payment card acceptance network grew by 25%, while 83% of POS terminals supported contactless payment.

Toy stores expect record revenues this year in the Easter period, according to distributors. Although web store revenues are growing, most parents are still buying Easter presents in traditional stores.

Hungarian shipping company Mahart Zrt. will soon call a public procurement tender for the construction of a HUF 2.2 billion liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal at the Port of Csepel on the Danube in the south of Budapest, business daily Világgazdaság reported on Monday.

In a surprise move, the National Bank of Romania has rejected a request for approval by the Romanian unit of Hungaryʼs OTP Bank to acquire 99.28% of Banca Românească from the National Bank of Greece, the lender said in a disclosure posted on the website of the Budapest Stock Exchange (BÉT) early on Monday.

Revenues of the local unit of German automobile manufacturer Audi edged up 1% to EUR 7.136 billion in 2017. Capital expenditures were up 45% at EUR 442 million last year, while the local unitʼs headcount climbed 5.8% to 12,307.

The National Bank of Hungary (MNB) allocated HUF 50 billion of its monetary policy interest rate swaps (MIRS) designed to flatten the yield curve at a tender on Wednesday, state news wire MTI reported.

The Monetary Council of the National Bank of Hungary (MNB) said it would continue to use its extended set of monetary policy instruments, without making any mention of future "fine-tuning," in the minutes from its policy meeting on February 27.

Manuscripts by the 19th century Hungarian composer Ferenc (Franz) Liszt, long thought lost, have been returned to the Liszt Memorial Museum and Research Center after being discovered in a private collection. The music is closely related to Hungary and the Revolution of 1848.

Erbslöh Hungária, a unit of German automotive group WKW, will spend HUF 14 billion to build a 1,500 square-meter production hall and install new surface treatment technology, increasing capacity, in Győr (121 km northwest of Budapest).